Quote Originally Posted by Kurald Galain View Post
No, the game does not. The game expects rogues to have a +3 bonus with most of their skills (at the levels most commonly played at), and that doesn't break any paradigm.
I think you undersell or don't realise how significant that additional +3 really is. A level 5 Rogue with Expertise and primary focus on the relevant Ability Score has +10 to their chosen skill, as compared to the +7 of a similarly focused character without it. That opens DC:30 as a possibility for that character. It will take characters without Expertise until level 13 to reach that same level of proficiency, but a level 5 Rogue can achieve it as a matter of routine, so long as time or risk are not at issue. Let me say that again; a level 5 Rogue can routinely accomplish the Near Impossible on any given task within the purview of their expertise. That is a massive shift in what is possible in the game for those characters. Yes, Guidance exists and offers a similar bonus, but it does also come with its own caveats; it's a spell, requires concentration, has verbal and somatic components and the caster must be in touch range of the character performing the task. Those are not insignificant. Without magical assistance, DC:30 remains not near, but actually impossible for most characters until they're well on the way to the highest tier of play. It requires magic or heroic tier competence to match what the Rogue is doing at 5th level. That's what Expertise is and how significant it's supposed to be; it's the ability to do things that most people don't even think can be done at all.

It's also why I don't think Reliable Talent comes on too late. Yes, it'd be nice to have it earlier but with Expertise, Rogues are already hitting just about every DC ever published. Do we really need to remove every skill check of DC:20 or lower from the game (again, bringing up +10 modifiers for a Rogue of lvl.5 or higher)? I think offering RT too early makes the same mistake that Natural Explorer does by removing checks rather than integrating them into a more interesting mechanic.